After NYE Bling

So my New Year's Eve celebration this year (or this past year, rather) was going to the outlets with my mom. Quite a wild party indeed. My mom told me it was time to buy me "more grown up" clothes, so we wandered into Banana Republic (with much reluctance from me at first) and LOFT. The sales were pretty darn amazing. Banana Republic had always seemed grossly overpriced to me, but surprisingly we left with a big bag of clothes (for both of us) for just over $100. At LOFT, I scored an originally $80 dress for $15. And it was also there that I found this gem, which is a huge understatement, of a nail polish for $2.99.

Ahh yes, the wonders of sales shopping.

We were about to check out when I saw this. I had already been quite surprised to see LOFT now carrying nail polish, but wow my eyes went straight to this. So. many. colors. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Let's take a moment to take that all in, shall we?

When I saw it, I thought, wasn't there a Deborah Lippmann nail polish that looked exactly like this? Yes, there is! And I must say, I actually like mine a lot better. And it was 6x cheaper. Yup, I think I win.

I think what really drew me to this nail polish was the fact that it was so densely packed and that all of the glitter particles were the same size. They were all the same big, chunky hexagons. Here is two layers of the nail polish with a clear top and bottom coat. For the first layer, I dabbed and jabbed the glitters to spread as many as possible over my nail, then I just filled in the gaps for the second layer.

I'm definitely going to enjoy looking down at my hands for the next few days.

And the glitters were so sparkly and blinding that Domo could not even compete. He was petrified.

Also, Happy New Year, ladies! Wishing you all a great year full of love, happiness, good health in 2013 and beyond. :)

Five Things

It's been a while since I last posted a 'Five Things' post, huh? Lately there have been a lot of things making me smile and that I've been enjoying on those dreary school days, which is great! So without further ado, here are five things that have been keeping me running.

{Filling up my empties bag.}

{A spunky little addition to my miniature figurines collection.}

{Using a museum ticket as my bookmark for Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.}

{Receiving souvenirs from Hawaii and San Francisco -- been wearing the bracelet non-stop.}

{Getting blinded by my own nails.}

Well, that ends my post here today. Crime and Punishment is such a heart-wrenching book. It makes me want to scratch my face off...in a good way. It's so ajslsjdkslkkjs;;skk -- I can't explain it. Anyway, I hope your weekend has been going swellingly! What's been making you smile lately? :)

Drugstore Thrills

After a long week of school, I didn't feel like going out with my friends so I headed home to be a (blogging) hermit. But first, I stopped by CVS to get some new makeup wipes. And well, I ended up spending a little bit of time there.

Some lighter reading material for the weekend.

This might just be me, but buying beauty products at the drugstore always gives me so much joy. Even more so than buying a fancy, high end makeup item. Is it a "simple pleasure"? I wouldn't necessarily call it that. But I guess I can say that there are a lot of reasons as to why I find so much pleasure in shopping there. 

Garnier Refreshing Remover Cleansing Towelettes.

I can browse at ease without a sales associate "helping me". It's convenient and relatively inexpensive (though they're not as cheap of a thrill nowadays, but let's save that topic for a rainy day). Seemingly endless aisles and rows are filled with product after product. There's a lot to choose from. And once you have the selected few held triumphantly in your hands, you cannot wait to pop open the seals at home and try them out.

Top: Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Pink Truffle, Bottom: Spoiled Nail Polish in Jewelry Heist

Yes, this must be it. It's the thrill of discovering a lovely little gem in a sea of so many unknowns. It's something you just can't experience at Sephora or a department store. You can't try it out and move on if it doesn't suit your fancy. You either buy it or put it back on the rack, never to know how it would have looked like on you. Yes, you could have gotten a nice Dior lipstick in exchange for all these things, but you just couldn't have gotten this kind of feeling. It's the epitome of a pleasant surprise (as are the facts on Snapple bottle caps).

Do you feel the same way about shopping for beauty products at the drugstore? I feel like I've rambled on too much about it, but well something about it just makes me really happy. The drugstore makes me feel very...druggy, eh? Can't wait to test these things out and tell you what I think! Hehe, have a great weekend! :)

Mochachino

Today was my first day as a senior back in school. I found out my class schedule and I'm content with almost all of them. The combination of classes I'm taking this year is rather unique/different so I'm separated from all of my good friends, but I guess it's time to make new friends! I'm already imagining all the work I'll be doing this year and it's a little scary, but I can see the light after the tunnel!

I put together a nice outfit for my first day, but it was so disgustingly humid that once I got home I had to change clothes. So sadly, there are no pictures of my first day outfit, but I wore a cobalt blue floral lace skirt with a white v-neck on top (if anyone is interested heh). I also dozed off for 2 hours when I got home...

But anyway, the subject of today's post is a nail polish. I've been getting into nail polish recently, and so I wanted to paint my nails a nice color for my first day back. I ran into CVS yesterday and chose the one that stood out the most to me. I chose an Essie nail polish in Mochachino. I had always liked taupe polishes, and this one in particular had a pretty silver shimmer running through it, so this was the one. It also had such a cute name.

Mochachino reminds me of the color of hot chocolate or a warm brown-gray sweater. It's an understated color with just the slightest amount of pizzazz. It contrasted really well with my blue skirt. The nail polish applied smooth and opaque in two coats on top of base coat, and I think it's the perfect transitional color for fall and winter.

Here's a look at this hunk of a textbook. Weighing in at almost 10 pounds (yes indeed I weighed it), I have to say, my Art History textbook is probably the biggest textbook I've ever had. Lugging it home was quite a workout. I do hope that I'll love it, though, I'm really excited for the class. 

I hope your week has been going well! I cannot wait for the weekend (already), so I can sleep in. Do you have any cool "first day" traditions? :)

Magnetic Magic

What is this!? A rare nail polish post from Maggie? 

Blasphemy!

Enter: 17 Magnetized Nail Polish in Grey. I received this from Jian a while back, but me not being a nail polish person, never got to trying it until today. I mean, the only thing I ever do to my nails is cut them. (Alas, I am too lazy.) I guess I was feeling a little curious today. Sorry about the sloppy application by the way, I literally have not painted my nails in years.

This specific brand is from the UK (I'm assuming), but these magnetic nail polishes have been popping up in drugstores over here already (I know Sally Hansen has some). The cap comes off and there is a magnet on top. There's also this very helpful little thing-a-ma-bobber jutting out of the cap for you to lay on your finger, which keeps the correct distance between the magnet and your nails. I was pretty doubtful about whether this measly-looking magnet would work...but boy, was I proven wrong.

The nails seem to be reaching for their lovely faucet counterpart.

The color of the nail polish itself is a nice steel gray with a fabulous metallic finish. It applied very smoothly and was opaque in 2 coats. I do quite like it on its own. It's a nice dark color, which is probably not the most fitting to wear while it's still summer but I digress.

Left: 2 coats un-magnetized, Right: 2 coats magnetized.

When magnetized, that distinct tiger bead-like pattern appears...like magic! I was so amazed at every single nail when I lifted up the magnetic cap. It turned into more of a black with gray currents rather than the original gray with black currents. 

Two things though: 1) you have to do one nail at a time, or else the nail polish will dry up before you get to magnetizing it, and 2) "hover" the magnet stationarily. I figured these out too late, hence my entire left hand.

Yeah, that wasn't on purpose. 

But yes, I will be wearing my nails like that. Have you tried magnetized nail polish yet?